An internal newsletter called "Fearless" which prominently featured the topic of microtransactions and their future in EVE was leaked to the public (you can probably find it with a quick search). The newsletter contained a lot of hypothetical situations and posed the question, if a golfer will pay thousands a year for golf clothes, access to the courses, and the best golfballs, tees and clubs, why shouldn't a similar model apply to EVE?

The idea of paying-to-win immediately inflamed EVE's community. The pay-to-win model is much maligned amongst gamers anyway, but in EVE's universe of player-driven economies, the idea of adding a shop which would let rich players buy more power as well as bypass player-crafted goods altogether is a massive no-no. So EVE players took to the streets (or in this case the stars) and congregated at one of EVE's largest trade hubs, creating a blockade of sorts.

Meanwhile, CCP called for an emergency meeting of the Council of Stellar Management, a small player-elected group of representatives who speak on behalf of EVE's 370k-odd subscribers. The CSM convened in Reykjavik just a few days ago and discussed the issues surrounding Incarna's rollout and the subsequent angering of nerds everywhere. What the CSM came away with should calm the storm.

Essentially, despite the contents of the leaked newsletter, CCP has no intention of releasing "gold bullets or gold ships" that can be bought that bypass the player-generated market or give those willing to spend extra real dollars an edge over those who don't. Executive Producer Arnar Gylfason wouldn't strictly rule out "convenience" items in the future, but he said that they may not exactly fit the universe of EVE.

How much would you pay for that sweet face-grabber? CCP thinks a lot.

The Chairman of the CSM wanted to emphasize that they were pleased with the general outcome of the emergency meeting, having clarified that there were currently no plans for non-cosmetic items to be introduced to the Noble Exchange. Future items will fall into three pricing tiers: low, medium and high-priced items. Although the monocle is extremely expensive and will probably remain one of the most expensive items for a while, Gylfason hasn't ruled out more expensive items in the future -- citing limited runs of unique ship cosmetics as a possibility. The future of the Noble Exchange, he told us, will be outlined in a developer blog post to be released in the next few days.

Although the controversy surrounding Incarna's rollout caused a lot of noise (and was even one of the largest cases of players unsubscribing en masse that CCP has seen), Gylfason said that Incarna has also brought in more players and EVE is actually stronger than ever before. The CSM also noted that the noise merely stemmed from a perception that EVE might introduce game-breaking items and not from anything truly concrete.

From my standpoint, it seems odd that CCP waited so long after the start of the controversy to address player concerns, given a simple statement regarding the future of the Noble Exchange that addressed what was brought up in the leaked document probably would have quieted any discord. Gylfason acknowledged that Incarna's release and subsequent events probably could have been handled much better, although CCP's dedication to their players (through the "emergency meeting of the CSM") is still impressive.

Later this year we may see the rollout of Incarna's next part, which is set to introduce multiplayer establishments, and there will undoubtedly be some new items that come with it. We'll see then what lessons CCP has learned from the last couple weeks.